As I was typing the title of this newsletter … I Don't Wanna Come Home! … I realized that Merriam-Webster might need to update their entry:

home /hōm/
noun
1. the place where one lives permanently, especially as a member of a family or household

Humans are more fluid than ever these days. Gone are land lines, we use mobile phones now. The distinction being … well, mobile. So this week I want to discuss that mindset … which by the way also works even if you still have a Princess wall phone with that long twisted cord.

LET’S TALK SUNSETS

I am a connoisseur of sunsets. When I lived in the Florida Keys, I watched one every night (with a beverage, of course). Some were just OK, and some wowed you like no other. But two nights ago I saw this one.

That is a completely un-retouched photo. And in fact, it barely captures what we saw. The sky seemed to actually sizzle with yellow-white streamers surrounded by orange-red everywhere.

This was looking over the Pacific Ocean from a fisherman’s beach in Baja California Sur called Punta Lobos. And it made me realize something … I haven’t even scratched the surface of seeing sunsets.

Nor pretty much anything else.

When we “came home” from that sunset and later nestled into our bed, I looked around the bedroom and realized that home is actually what we carry with us. It’s not where you are.

When you’re inside our bedroom, it feels like you’re anchored in place. You completely forget that just outside your windows lies somewhere different than the night before. But it’s also attached to a bus that can take us to places of discovery.

A nomadic life may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but the concept of home isn’t as cut and dried as the dictionary wants you to believe. Home can be anything and anywhere you want it to be.

ROAD TRIP! ... La Paz to Cabo San Lucas

Sometimes life refuses to take you where you want it to go. And sometimes … that’s all for the best.

Before I made this video, I had visions of wandering aimlessly down the Baja coast, discovering tiny treasures along the way. I even wrote this description before I even shot a single frame of video:

Well, great intentions, and all that. We started in the Capital of Baja California Sur. A city called La Paz. And we ended in the Party Capital of that same Mexican state, Cabo San Lucas.

Not quite getting lost, eh?

But somehow I did. By changing what I expected of the word lost. (See a theme in this newsletter yet?). Yes, lost means not knowing where you are. But it also means losing yourself in something new. And that’s exactly what happened.

So … Where Is Home?

That question is my biggest problem. I find a place … or a culture … and I fall in love with it. When I moved to Miami in 2014, that was it. I was going to live in that city until the day I died.

Then I moved to Key Largo, because there I was going to …

You get the idea. Yes, I’m seriously affected by shiny new squirrels and I have the attention span of a goldfish, but it’s more than that. Spain, the Yucatán, and now Baja. There are so many places in this world that attach themselves to my soul.

Take where I am now. On the surface, Baja is just vast empty spaces filled with cacti and bordered by thousands of miles of coastline. But it’s so much more. It’s the people. It’s the history and culture. And it’s the chill.

As you might have guessed from the shiny squirrel comment just two paragraphs ago, I am not a naturally chill person. And yet, in Baja I find myself just saying to Nikki … “maybe we should just hang out here for a few more days, then we can think about what’s next”.

Will this chill last? Oh, hell no. LOL!

But it has solidified something inside of me. I have been struggling with what my next major step is. Do I go back to a 9-5 job to pay for all of this? Do I buy a house equidistant between kids and grandkids?

My revelation this week has been intense. Because for me, I am home. My comfy bedroom on wheels, taking me to wonders I didn’t know existed. I’ll find a way to be financially secure. I’ll visit family more frequently. But in my heart I know that my home is on the road.

At least until the next shiny squirrel passes in front of me. 😃 

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